Mizblog

I’ve spent the last couple days struggling through life. Tired, sore, and depressed, I’ve been just putting in time waiting for my feelings to improve.

Well, it seems that it happened today. I had a good workout at the gym after seeing high tide at 6am. High tide makes for difficult running, because you can’t run in packed wet sand without getting your feet wet.

So I went to the gym instead and got in a solid workout. Afterwards I went home and got in a solid day’s work. I’ve got a program to test now! Haha! I’ve been working on this thing forever but now I’m turning the corner.

I ran again today. 2.5 miles, though I couldn’t run the whole way. I ended up walking. Afterwards we dropped by the gym and did a little weight lifting. I found I could lift slightly heavier weights than hitherto, so that’s some evidence of progress. I’m happy about that.

This is the first weekend in a while that I haven’t had big plans. I think I’ll try to get some work done…

I’m fighting a powerful sleep addiction that I’ve had for longer than I can remember.

My brother’s new wife’s brother died this week. Two weeks after the wedding, in which he was a groomsman. Poor Georgie.

There’s so much else going on that it’s hard to remember it all. Today was the first day in more than a week that I didn’t go out for some morning exercise. Tomorrow it’ll be back to the grind. I’ve now been running in the mornings for about 2 months. I do find that I’m stronger now, though my work has been suffering for it since I started. It’s been harder to concentrate and get into the programming zone on exercise days, and even on most in-between days. I hope that wears off before my job does.

Labor Day I spent playing D&D with my brother Rob, Greg, and John. We had Abbot’s Pizza. It was a great time. :)

Friday I again ran on the beach. 2.5 miles! It was a long day after that, but I wasn’t as dead as I was on Tuesday.

Friday night I went out to dinner with Sangeeta, Teetee, Mark, Julie, Mike, Emmeline, and Eric. We hit Yabu, which was an expensive Japanese restaurant with good (though small) food.

After that we went to Chan Dara where we had banana flambe and ice cream just as Teetee had to leave for the airport.

Saturday morning, Sangeeta and I hiked up Temescal Canyon to the waterfall, then up to the ridge, which we followed back down. The whole thing took us about an hour and 15 minutes. We were pretty quick. My heart was beating at full speed and my lungs were working at capacity, but I made it all the way through with only a couple of brief pauses (at the waterfall and the summit). The running really paid off!

Today I’m paying for it. I’m tired but happy. My ankles are as sore as ever. I had to buy a brush to clean the awful dust (from the trail) off of my shoes.

Let’s see if I can run again tomorrow…

I ran on the beach yesterday. 2 more miles. I might be getting better at it, though it’s hard to say for sure. I’m still prone to injury.

I spent the rest of the day dead. I moved around a little, but I was pretty much dead. It was hard to think and hard to move.

I had one interesting thought the whole day. I realized that my giving up sweets this year was about as successful as if I’d decided to give up forgetting stuff. Hah! Good luck, Tim.

It’s Monday again. Back to the grind.

Last Friday we went out for Cuban food with Teetee and her friends, followed by karaoke! I had a blast! I sang about a dozen songs (with varying degrees of success) ranging from Sarah McLaughlin to Slayer, though I think my best performances were on the first two I did (Creep and Policy of Truth).

Saturday was a relaxing day, punctuated by a very good gym workout, a moderate nap, and terminating by a retrieval of my brother and his new wife from the airport on their return from a Hawaiian honeymoon.

Sunday we got Teetee and Julie to come out to Sangeeta’s cart. Sangeeta wanted to send Teetee off to NY next weekend with a selection of her jewelry, to market to friends there. After that we toured the new Sherman Oaks Galleria, and DSW.

Teetee and Julie bought new shoes. After that, they dropped us off and headed out to Chinatown while Sangeeta and I went to visit my parents. A couple hours later, we met up with my friend John and his girlfriend Jenny for dinner, then finished up the night by delivering belated wedding gifts to Rob and Jenn.

It was a good day capping off a good weekend. I’m very happy. :)

As it turns out, I did run on the beach yesterday. I didn’t run very well, but I did get to see a topless woman. That cheered me up for a minute or so. It was high tide, so running was tricky. I had to keep dodging the incoming waves while still trying to run on the moistened, packed sand. Above that was dry, shifting, difficult sand, and running on that was a struggle. I ended up only running a mile and walking most of the way back. Also, it was hot.

Afterwards I managed to get a lot of work done. It was a good day.

I suspect this post will be all about my aches and pains and lack of energy. My neck and shoulders are stiff and sore. They were like that when I went to bed and are still like that now that I’ve arisen. Maybe I’m just getting old.

I’ve been going to the gym about every other day, but it’s been a couple weeks since I ran on the beach. Originally I laid off because of lower back pain, but yesterday Sangeeta was tired so we just walked up and down the street for a while and never even saw the Pacific. I’m about to go to the gym again and try to work out some of this stiffness.

Then it’s off to work, where I’ll hopefully avoid coding at my crappy little desk on my xmas lighted computer. I’ve been struggling with my work for the last two days now, trying to redesign some of the fundamentals that I already coded in. I wish I were smarter so I could anticipate and avoid stuff like this.

Such is life. My life, anyway.

Last weekend was my brother’s wedding. It was nice. We got back Sunday afternoon, glad to be finished with the summer ’05 wedding marathon! Anyway, I posted some pictures here, in case you wanted to see.

Since then I’ve been getting back into the flow of working. It’s going okay.